"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

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Saturday, 14 November 2009

follow-up on that modeling thing

SR mentioned this morning that since he thinks the whole point of my blog is to get women of the world to hate me, that the best move I could make would to be to post the picture from my modeling job.

This, of course, made me laugh.

Imagine creating a blog where the whole point was to be hated. But after writing about my desire to lose weight while sick and all of my other previous honest (either partially joking or too honest) posts, I do wonder if I have unintentionally caused all of the women of the world to hate me.

What is the point of my blog? To write honestly about trying, trying, trying to be a good mom, a good wife, an ultra runner and a physician. Yes, and I also want to stay thin. That is no secret. But will it all work out for our family? Will I go crazy? That remains to be seen. But if I just wrote "my life is again perfect today because..." it might get a bit boring for all of us.

Anyway, something fun recently was modeling for that company Bodykick.dk. As you can imagine, it is not really a bad job to keep running back and forth while a nice guy is taking pictures.

Some other good news is the whole family is healthy today and SR and I are going to run the "Cross" run at 2pm. At least that's the plan. Can't wait to write a report.

15 comments:

I worry about my weight. I wegh myself every morning, and have a certain number higher than which I feel bad about myself. I used to count calories when was dropping it - every cycel after I gain weight, I go through monitoring every once of food put in my mouth. And while I can't say about daughter's weight anything, I tell my son to not overeat, and generally upset about American moms (and Russian too) when they think an overweight child is a healthy child. That's the problem with population. All this new medical bill in US that is in progress drives me nuts - how about the money would be spend on forbidding advertising fast food, closing fast food joints and educating people about healthy choices? Overweight children lead to obese adults, diabetes, hypertension and a bunch of other stuff. While anorexia is bad, overeating is equally bad too.

I think it's more about concern than hate! It just alarmed me to hear about someone counting calories in vomit and hoping that stepdaughter might lose weight while sick. We just had the stomach flu in our house this week too and I was way more concerned with the idea that we might all be dehydrated and how was I going to take care of a 1 year old and what if my milk supply was affected vs. if I was going to lose weight. That was about the farthest thing from my mind.

I was talking with running friends (women) this morning about how hard we are on ourselves. I betcha if you loosened up on your expectations for yourself, you'd find that you weren't any heavier! Life's way too short to be obsessive about it all (and food is way too good!!). Truly, I am at the lowest weight I've been at in years and eat more than I have in years. I don't think that's a coincidence. I feel pretty sure all of the undereating in the past just backfired on me back then.

Love that Fall picture - that would be so fun to have a pro photographer snapping away! Must say I like reading your blog. You are brutally honest though in a way few others are which is why I guess you draw such responses. But I know that when I'm sick I do take a perverse pleasure in losing weight so quickly, I just don't have the desire for detailed calculations of where that weight loss comes from (or goes) ;) Keep up with the blunt honesty, I think it's refreshing to read!!

About your last post, throwing up doesn't make you lose weight. Unfortunately. If this was true, bulimics wouldn't be normal to above-normal weight. Making it harder to spot/diagnose. Since they don't look emaciated like anorexics. Which brings me to question #1.

1. If the goal is to be skinny, why not just stop exercising and stop eating? It seems like a lot of work to eat to fuel your daily exercise only to try to burn off what you ate. Why not skip that whole process?

2. Why run? Do you enjoy running because it helps you to be a better mom? Because you fear fat? Because it burns the most amount of calories in the least amount of time? Because it helps you appreciate your body? Is there something your readers don't know about? For instance, you were obese growing up and running is the only thing that has kept your weight down?

3. What if you can't be super skinny and super fast at the same time? Say for instance, you threw out your scale for a month. Worked on just getting fast. Fartleks, hills, Yasso-800's, repeats, whatever. You shed time off of your 50mi, 10k, etc. But your body did a homeostasis calculation and X miles @ X pace = more kg than you want to weigh. What then?

Anyway, women of the world don't hate you. I just think most of us have been through the obsessing about weight, numbers on a scale and trying to control it. Have you ever thought about throwing out your scale and just listening to your bodies cues? You may find that you drop weight. What about something like yoga. Where you focus on a mind/body connection?

Did you ever think someone would say that you have something in common with Sarah Palin? Just think: you are disliked by many but ignored by few! (This is my attempt at humor, and no disrespect is intended.)

I'm always intrigued by your posts. Your honesty about wanting to be thin is rare in that you express it in words while the rest of us just think it in our heads. I had the H1N1 this past week and towards the end of it realized I was getting thinner. Didn't have any vomiting issues thank goodness but my diet became limited to toast and oj. Lost almost 10 pounds. Now my obsession is keeping it off in a healthy manner.

As for step-daughter, it's a worthy goal to get her to eat healthy and enjoy exercise but I would cringe if she ever knew that you were slightly obsessing about her weight.

I always think the only positive thing about being sick is losing weight! I mean, you have to find something positive about it, right?

I think if women were a little more honest with themselves, they'd admit to similar concerns about weight. Let's be honest! Being thin isn't something that just happens, and if you are over say - 20 - you have to work on it. My entire family is thin, and I still have to work on keeping my weight to what I consider ideal.

I do think the weight/performance comment from Kathleen is point well taken, though. We all have an optimum weight for our sport. The thing about running is that if you look at highly competitive runners, they are thin as rails. Less weight = less mass to move = greater speed.

Agreed, Olga. Even my colleagues have said to me they are happy step-daugther has been able to lose some weight. It is just not healthy to be over-weight and we all should know it. (that being said, my job is to love her and encourage her and not make her at all feel down on herself!)

Kathleen, 1. Any time you use more calories than you take in, you lose weight. Whether it's vomit, exercise, undereating; there are just some healthier ways than others. Bulimics aren't successful because make up for the lost calories later by binging again. 2. I run because I love it. I love being in shape and enjoying the outdoors and the high it gives me. Plus it's something my husb. and I enjoy together. I have no interest in being super-skinny, but want to be a weight and in the shape that makes me the best runner I can be (agreed, Enthused!). 3. I also think yoga is awesome and I practice it regularly. Defintely think it helps me be a better runner (mostly because it prevents injury) and a bit more patient of a person.

Thanks, Marilyn! That one made me laugh. Sarah also attracts quite a bit of attention by saying outlandish, and often wrong, things.

I've been trying to research exercise and weight after I stopped running so much and dropped 7 pounds in 2 weeks?!!

I don't know if I believe the old adage of calories in calories out. It assumes all calories are equal. While yes, 1 calorie from any type of food contains the energy needed to raise 1 gram of water 1 degree. Calories aren't processed by the body the same. So, far, out of all the research people have done on obesity and exercise. I can't find conclusive evidence that exercise will keep the pounds off.

Which makes me think it has more to do with the type of food eaten and hormones. What about stress and cortisol? Does too much exercise and something like not sleeping enough cause weight gain? What about the type of food eaten and insulin/blood sugarlevels and their role in weight?

I know you are doing research in opthamology for your PhD...? but I am bringing this up to you wondering if you have done any kind of research for yourself on weight, running, and food. And/or have any insight.

I completely obsess about my weight - weigh myself every day like Olga. And while I have not been sick in about 5 years (running + yoga + no kids is my theory) I would completely think about weight loss (in a positive way) if I was throwing up for a few days...

I just don't have the guts to be as honest as you on my blog!

So congrats - who cares if others agree or not. You're living your life girl!

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

...

My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.